Technical Note

Finite Element Method–Based Analysis of an Unsaturated

Soil Slope Subjected to Rainfall Infiltration
I. N. Hamdhan1 and H. F. Schweiger2
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Abstract: This study presents results from the finite-element analysis of a well-instrumented and well-monitored 11-m-high cut slope in
Zaoyang, Hubei, China, subjected to rainfall infiltration. This analysis requires simultaneously computation of the deformation and the ground-
water flow with time-dependent boundary conditions (fully coupled flow-deformation analysis). Based on the available data, the hydraulic
parameters required for the applied Van Genuchten models were estimated. The agreement achieved in pore-water pressures and groundwater
levels between measurement and analysis using the FEM can be considered very reasonable for the full time period monitored. DOI: 10.1061/
(ASCE)GM.1943-5622.0000239. © 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
CE Database subject headings: Unsaturated soils; Slopes; Rainfall; Infiltration; Pore water; Water pressure; Finite element method.
Author keywords: Unsaturated soil slope; Rainfall infiltration; Pore-water pressure; Finite-element method.

Introduction Zhang et al. (2004) presented analyses showing that under

Slope failures in unsaturated soils are often induced by rainfall in-
filtration. The characteristics of water flow, change of pore-water
pressure, and shear strength of soils are the major parameters
related to slope stability analysis involving unsaturated soils that
are directly affected by the flux boundary condition (i.e., infil-
tration, evaporation) at the soil-atmosphere interface. Generally,
unsaturated soil slope failures happen most frequently during rain
periods. The infiltration of rainfall will increase the groundwater
level and water pressure and decrease matric suction of unsaturated
soils.
Ng and Shi (1998) investigated the effect of numerous rainfall
events, initial groundwater table, and boundary conditions on
transient seepage and thus slope stability in unsaturated soils using
the FEM. Infiltration of rainfall caused a decrease in matric suction
and an increase in moisture content and hydraulic conductivity in
the unsaturated soil. The intensity and duration of rainfall, initial
groundwater table, and hydraulic conductivity are the parameters
that significantly influence slope stability analysis.
Cai and Ugai (2004) investigated the effect of hydraulic char-
acteristics, initial degree of saturation, and intensity and duration of
rainfall on water pressure in slopes. The results show that these
parameters had a significant influence on the water pressure in slopes
and thus on the stability of slopes under rainfall infiltration.
steady-state conditions, the intensity of rainfall expressed as a
proportion of saturated hydraulic conductivity is the main parameter
that influences matric suction near the ground surface. However,
under transient conditions, the intensity of rainfall, the saturated
hydraulic conductivity, and the water storage function are the pa-
rameters that affect the matric suction profile.
An analytical parametric study has been carried out to investigate
the effect of hydraulic properties and rainfall conditions on rainfall
infiltration mechanism in single- and two-layer unsaturated soil
system (Zhan and Ng 2004). The results showed that the effects of
the desaturation coefficient and saturated permeability on the pore-
water pressure response are more significant than the effect of water
storage capacity.
A full-scale field study was completed on an unsaturated soil
slope in the Hubei Province of China (Ng et al. 2003). Artificial
rainfall and in situ monitoring were conducted in this field trial.
These data, presented in the following sections, are compared with
results from finite-element (FE) calculations based on a fully cou-
pled flow-deformation analysis with time-dependent boundary
conditions. Unfortunately, not all the required parameters for the
numerical analysis have been available, and therefore, some as-
sumptions had to be made based on engineering judgment.
Instrumentation and Monitoring

1
Lecturer, Dept. of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology,
Bandung 40124, Indonesia; formerly, Ph.D. Student, Computational Geo-
technics Group, Institute for Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering,
Graz Univ. of Technology, Graz, 8010 Austria (corresponding author).
E-mail: indranh@itenas.ac.id
2
Professor, Computational Geotechnics Group, Institute for Soil Me-
chanics and Foundation Engineering, Graz Univ. of Technology, Graz, 8010
Austria. E-mail: helmut.schweiger@tugraz.at
Note. This manuscript was submitted on October 24, 2011; approved on
July 6, 2012; published online on August 9, 2012. Discussion period open
until March 1, 2014; separate discussions must be submitted for individual
papers. This technical note is part of the International Journal of Geo-
mechanics, Vol. 13, No. 5, October 1, 2013. ©ASCE, ISSN 1532-3641/
2013/5-653–658/$25.00.
Monitoring Area
The monitoring area is in a semidry area located in Zaoyang,
Hubei, China. The average annual rainfall is about 800 mm, and
70% of the rainfall is distributed from May to September. The sur-
face of the slope was well grassed, but no trees were there.
Soil Profile and Properties
Borehole investigation was carried out around the monitoring area.
Soil sampling, a standard penetration test (SPT), and dilatometer
tests (DMTs) were carried out in the boreholes. Fig. 1 illustrates the
soil profiles and geotechnical parameters obtained from the boreholes

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Int. J. Geomech. 2013.13:653-658.

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Fig. 1. Soil profile and geotechnical parameters from the borehole around midslope (data from Ng et al. 2003)

around midslope (Ng et al. 2003). Typical properties for the clay are Table 1. Typical Properties of Expansive Clay (data from Ng et al. 2003
summarized in Table 1. and Zhan et al. 2007)
Soil properties Unit Value
Field Instrumentation and Artificial Rainfall Simulation Classification
Field instrumentation and artificial rainfall simulation tests were Percentage of sand, Percentage 3%, 58%, 39%
carried out in a monitoring area 15 m wide and 31 m long. The in- silt, clay
strumentation included jet-fill tensiometers and thermal conductiv- USCS classification — Silty clay
ity sensors. The layout and locations of the tensiometers are shown Specific gravity Gs — 2.67
in Fig. 2. There were three rows of instrumentation for pore-water Dry density kN=m3 15–16.2
pressure and piezometer level monitoring: R1 at the upper part, R2 at Flow characteristic
the middle part, and R3 at the lower part of the slope. It followed Saturated permeability ks m=s 10210 to 1027
from previous studies that recorded responses in pore-water pressure Air entry value kPa 30
using jet-fill tensiometers and thermal conductivity suction sensors Natural shear-strength
gave reasonably consistent results. parameters
Rainfall was artificially produced using a specially designed Effective cohesion c9 kPa 16.7
sprinkler system that consisted of a pump, a main water-supply pipe, Effective angle of Degrees 28.7
five branches, and 35 sprinkler heads. This sprinkler system could friction f9
produce three levels of rainfall intensity (3, 6, and 9 mm/h).
Continuity Equation
Unsaturated Groundwater Flow In transient groundwater flow, the hydraulic head changes with re-
spect to time. Changes are usually the result of a change in the
Darcy’s Law boundary conditions with respect to time. The continuity equation
for transient conditions is
The coefficient of permeability in an unsaturated state depends on    
the saturation of soils. The relative permeability krel is defined as the k sat
 ∂pw
=T rel k =pw þ rw g 2 n S 2 ∂S ¼0 (2)
ratio of the permeability at a given saturation to the permeability in rw g Kw ∂pw ∂t
the saturated state. Hence, based on Darcy’s law, the unsaturated
flow in the porous medium is

krel k sat
 Hydraulic Models

q¼ =pw þ rw g
rw g
where q 5 specific discharge (fluid velocity); k sat 5 saturated per-
meability matrix; rw 5 water density; g 5 vector of gravitational
acceleration ð0, 2g, 0ÞT ; and =pw 5 gradient of the pore-water
pressure that causes groundwater flow.
(1)
Hydraulic parameters of the groundwater flow in unsaturated zones
(above the phreatic surface) are described by the soil water char-
acteristics curve (SWCCs). The SWCC describes the capacity of
the soil to keep water at different stresses. There are many models
that describe the hydraulic behavior of unsaturated soils. Van
Genuchten (1980) presented a set of closed-form equations of

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Int. J. Geomech. 2013.13:653-658.

 hydraulic characteristics of unsaturated soils that is based on the h 
ðgn 21Þ=gn i2
capillary model of Mualem (1976). The Van Genuchten model, as krel ðSÞ ¼ ðSe Þgl 1 2 1 2 Segm =ðgn 21Þ (6)
employed in this study, introduces the relation between saturation
and suction pore pressure head fp Alternatively, a model for the SWCC based on adsorption,
cavitation, and double porosity as presented by Frydman and Baker

 h 
gn igc (2009) could be employed, but this approach is not followed in this
S fp ¼ Sres þ ðSsat 2 Sres Þ 1 þ ga fp (3)
study.

pw
fp ¼ (4) Matric Suction Profile
rw g
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The matric suction profile in an unsaturated soil generally depends

where Sres 5 residual saturation, which describes the part of the fluid
on the soil properties as given by the SWCC, the soil permeability,
that remains in the pores even at high suction heads; and ga , gn , and
precipitation or evaporation rates, and boundary drainage con-
gc 5 fitting parameters that have to be measured for a specific
ditions, including the location of groundwater level.
material. In general, at saturated conditions, the pores will not be
completely filled with water because air can get trapped, and the
saturation in this situation Ssat will be less than 1. Numerical Modeling of Unsaturated Soil Slope
The effective degree of saturation Se is obtained as
In this section, the results from the FEM will be discussed. The
S 2 Sres mechanical and hydraulic models used in the analysis are the Mohr-
Se ¼ (5)
Ssat 2 Sres Coulomb failure criterion and the Van Genuchten model, respec-
tively. The analysis was performed using the FE software Plaxis
and the relative permeability krel ðSÞ is (Brinkgreve et al. 2010).

Fig. 2. Cross section of instrumented slope (data from Ng et al. 2003)

Fig. 3. Geometry, FE meshes, and boundary conditions

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Int. J. Geomech. 2013.13:653-658.

 Geometry, Finite-Element Mesh, and Material Properties
The height of the slope is 11.2 m with a uniform slope angle of 22°
and a 1-m-wide berm at the midheight of the slope. The geometry
and FE mesh used are shown in Fig. 3, and 1,894 elements with
15-noded triangles have been used.
The international soil classification system USDA series was
used for determining the hydraulic data for the analysis because
they were not directly provided by Ng et al. (2003) and Zhan et al.
(2007). The SWCC based on the USDA series and the experimental
data can be fitted with sufficient accuracy. Soil parameters for the
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Boundary Conditions
The initial groundwater level was defined based on field monitoring
from piezometric measurements (Fig. 3). The groundwater level at the
beginning of monitoring at the R1, R2, and R3 locations are assumed
as steady-state conditions; i.e., before rainfall occurs, a steady-state
flow calculation based on three measurement of groundwater level at
R1, R2, and R3 monitoring locations was performed. A rainfall with
intensity as depicted in Fig. 4 was applied on the slope. The min-
imum and maximum pore pressure heads are assumed to be
20:5 and 0:1 m, respectively. The water is supposed to run off if the

Mohr-Coulomb model and hydraulic data of clay used in the analysis
are given in Table 2.
Table 2. Soil Parameters for Mohr-Coulomb Model
Soil properties
Mechanical parameters
Unit weight g
Elasticity modulus E9
Effective Poisson’s
ratio n9
Effective cohesion c9
Effective angle of
friction f9
Hydraulic parameters
Saturated permeability ksat
ga
gn
gl
water level comes above the ground surface at a level 0.1 m, and
evaporation is supposed to stop if the upper part of the ground has
become unsaturated at a depth 0.5 m. The left and right boundaries
were assumed to be free boundaries, and the lower boundary of the
model was assumed to be a closed boundary.
Unit Value The initial suction of the model is assumed to increase hydrostat-
ically above groundwater level until the surface. This assumption leads
kN=m3 15.6 to the initial degree of saturation, as shown in Fig. 5, corresponding to
kPa 10,000 the chosen SWCC (clay soils). R1, R2, and R3 are three rows of in-
— 0.35 strumentation for pore-water pressure (soil suction) and piezometer
(groundwater level) monitoring. It is acknowledged that owing to
kPa 16.7 environmental boundary conditions, other assumptions with re-
Degrees 28.7 spect to initial conditions are possible, but this has not been pursued
here.
m=s 5:50 3 1027
Results
1=m 0.80
— 1.09
Fig. 6 show the changes in pore-water pressure in response of
— 0.50
rainfall measured by the tensiometer and calculated by the FEM in

Fig. 4. Intensity of rainfall during the monitoring period

Fig. 5. Initial degree of saturation

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 the R2 monitoring location. R2-T-0.6, R2-T-1.2, R2-T-1.4, and R2-
T-1.6 are the tensiometer measurements at 0.6, 1.2, 1.4, and 1.6 m
of depth, respectively. These figures show that after several days of
rainfall, the pore-water pressure increases (suction decreases) until
the end of the first period of rainfall and then decreases again
during the no-rain period. After one day of the second period of
rainfall, the pore-water pressure increases again until the end of the
second period of rainfall and then decreases again after the rainfall
has stopped. The results from the FEM agree very well with the
observations, especially at a depth more than 1 m below the ground
surface. Some cracks and fissures were observed to 1.5 m below the
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location. With the small rainfall intensity on the last day of the first
rainfall period, the pore-water pressures decrease rapidly, followed
by a small decrease during the no-rain period. The same tendency
occurred in the second rainfall period. The pore-water pressure in the
lower three control points began to increase on the first day of the
second rainfall period, but the pore-water pressure in the upper
control point started to increase on the second day of second rainfall
period. On the last day of the second rainfall period, the pore-water
pressure decreased gradually, followed by a small decrease during
the no-rain period.
In the R3 monitoring location, during the first rainfall, the pore-

ground surface that will influence the result at these positions, but
this is not considered in the analysis.
Fig. 7 shows the change in pore-water pressure in response to the
rainfall in the R1 and R3 monitoring locations. In the R1 monitoring
location, during the first rainfall, the pore-water pressure in the lower
three control points (1.2, 1.4, and 1.6 m of depth) began to increase
on the fourth day of the first rainfall period. On the other hand, the
upper control point (0.6 m deep) showed the pore-water pressure
starting to increase on the third day of the first rainfall period. This
indicates that the combined effects of three days of rainfall only
dissipate the soil suction above 1.2 m deep in the R1 monitoring
water pressure at all control points (0.6, 1.2, 1.4, and 1.6 m deep)
began to increase rapidly on the first day of the first rainfall period. This
is caused by the position of R3 monitoring location at the lower part of
the slope with a small initial soil suction; consequently, the soil suction
will dissipate almost in the same time at all control points during the
rainfall. The pore-water pressures at all control points started to de-
crease gradually after the first rainfall period was stopped. The same
tendency also occurred in the second rainfall period.
A similar agreement between measurement and analysis could be
achieved for piezometric level changes, but they are not discussed
here because of space limitations.

Fig. 6. Measured and FEM-calculated pore-water pressure changes in response to rainfall at R2 for four different depths: (a) 0.6 m deep; (b) 1.2 m deep;
(c) 1.4 m deep; (d) 1.6 m deep

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Fig. 7. Pore-water pressure changes in response to rainfall obtained from FE analysis: (a) R1 monitoring location; (b) R3 monitoring location
Conclusions
The comparison between an analysis performed with the FEM and in
situ measurements of a field trial investigating the effect of rainfall
infiltration on a slope showed good agreement. Small differences are
probably caused by cracks and fissures observed in particular at up
to 1.5 m below the ground surface that are not considered in the
analysis. Response in pore-water pressure from the observed and FE
analysis generally showed a 1- to 3-day delay related to initiation of
the rainfall event. The combine effects of the first three days of
rainfall were much more significant than the effect of the ongoing
rainfall or the second rainfall event.
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